Do Presets Actually Work? A Lightroom Tutorial.
Many photographers sell preset packs as a way to generate income for their business, and why shouldn't they? Most have worked hard over the years to refine their colors and style, and along the way, found fans of their work on social media or elsewhere. There’s certainly demand, as people want to emulate the colors and style of photographers they like. I hope to sell my own preset packs in the near future - after I’ve tested them extensively and given potential purchasers the tools, knowledge, and guidance on how to use them most effectively.
The biggest problem with presets (other than poorly made ones) is that many people, especially those just getting started with Lightroom & photo editing, don’t know how to get the most out of them. They either think or are sold on the idea that presets are a one-click solution to emulating their favorite creatives. While presets can speed up the editing workflow significantly, every photo needs certain tweaks to make the edit work. Likewise, not every preset is going to fit every photo, even when tweaked. It’s also important to understand that no edit or preset can save a bad composition - editing can enhance good photos, but it can’t fix bad ones.
I’ve been creating my own presets over the last three years. At different points in my creative journey I’ve changed course: cold to warm on white balance, saturation levels, certain colors I’ve gravitated towards, etc. But heading into 2025, I’m finally at a place where I’m genuinely happy with my colors. Although I may not use every single preset I’ve created in my current work, I’ve developed looks that span different types of photography: travel, street, portraits, landscape, cinematic, and more. I’m pleased to offer a small, free preset pack for readers to enjoy and learn how to use in this blog tutorial.
The pack is named “Omotenashi”, after the Japanese concept of hospitality and mindfulness. It’s my way of welcoming you to my work & community, with the hope that you’ll learn to love (or, love even more) the photos you take & edit. These three presets will eventually be a part of my expansive, paid preset pack, so stay tuned!
In this blog, I’ll cover:
How to install Lightroom presets, including my free preset pack
Things to be aware of before applying presets
Sample preset-driven workflow, including how to adjust certain Lightroom sliders to get a better result
What’s next: a full Lightroom sliders & modules breakdown series
If you want to follow along with the free preset pack, be sure to download it here. Let’s get started.
How to Install Lightroom Presets
There are a few different methods for installing Lightroom presets, depending on which version of the software you’re using. I’ll walk through the method for each version. There’s also a Read Me (.pdf) file with these instructions, including screenshots of steps, in my free preset pack.
Lightroom Classic (LrC)
Navigate to your Develop module and look for the Presets section on the sidebar
Click the plus sign, and then click Import Presets
Select the folder (unzipped) containing the presets (.xmp), and it will add them all to your presets list
Lightroom (Lr): Desktop
Navigate to the Edit module and look at the bottom of the sidebar for the Presets button
Click the three dots on the right, and then click Import Presets
Select the folder (unzipped) containing the presets (.xmp), and it will add them all to your presets list
Lightroom (Lr): Mobile App with Adobe Sync
First, complete the steps on the previous slide for the Lightroom (Lr) desktop version
Make sure your Adobe Cloud Sync is enabled and active
Once you re-sync after installing on desktop, these presets should appear
Lightroom (Lr): Mobile App without Adobe Sync (Most Difficult/Tedious)
Note that this is the most complicated installation method
Send the download preset folder “Mobile Only” version to your phone, and save it in the file organizer (e.g.Files on iOS)
Select the folder (unzipped) containing the .dng files. Save these as photos to your phone
Open the Lr Mobile App and find the files, as they contain the metadata for the presets
To create each preset, press the three dot menu “...” then select “Create Preset”
Name each preset according to its file name (e.g. “Travel - T1 - B”)
Make a new preset group and name it “Rohan Ugale Presets” or “Omotenashi Preset Pack” as you wish
Tap the following boxes: Profile:Color, Color, Effects, Detail
Tap the check mark to complete
Repeat preset creation steps for the remaining presets, until complete
Before Applying Presets: Think About These Things
As mentioned before, presets can greatly speed up your editing workflow - when you know how to use and tweak them effectively. Before starting to edit with presets, I want to raise awareness about a few potential issues you’ll run into when using them.
RAW vs. JPEG & Why It Matters
Before even applying a preset, the type of file you’re working with makes a huge difference. Presets will always work better on RAW files than JPEGs because RAW images contain more data.
JPEGs are already processed in-camera, meaning they have baked-in contrast, sharpening, and color adjustments. When you apply a preset to a JPEG, the changes can be unpredictable since you’re layering edits on top of the camera’s own processing. This can lead to unnatural color shifts, extreme contrast, or loss of detail.
On the other hand, RAW files give you way more flexibility. Since RAW images store unprocessed data, presets apply much more naturally, and you have more control to tweak exposure, white balance, and colors without degrading image quality. If you’re serious about editing and want the best results from presets, shooting in RAW is the way to go.
Skin Tones
Skin tones are one of the first things to check after applying a preset, especially if you photograph people often. Many presets apply strong color shifts that can make skin look unnatural. Some add a lot of warmth, which can make skin appear overly orange or red. Others might cool things down too much, leaving skin looking washed out or even slightly bluish.
Another issue comes from heavy contrast or saturation boosts. If a preset increases saturation too much, it can make skin look harsh and unrealistic. Darker skin tones might lose their natural depth, while lighter skin tones can end up looking too bright and flat.
To fix this, adjust white balance, tint, or the HSL sliders (especially in the orange and red channels). You can also use the masking tools in Lightroom to refine skin tones separately from the rest of the image. Masking tools are so powerful that they can automatically detect and mask certain people or even body parts on people, making it easier than ever to spot-correct skin tone issues.
Light & Contrast
Presets can completely change how light and contrast behave in your photo. Some brighten everything, giving images a soft and airy feel. Others go for a dark, moody look by deepening the shadows and reducing highlights. These changes can be great, but they don’t always work with every image.
For example, if you shot a high-exposure image with lots of bright tones, a dark and moody preset might crush the shadows too much, making the details disappear. On the other hand, if you took a low-light image, a bright and airy preset might push highlights too far, washing out important details.
The best way to handle this is by fine-tuning the Saturation and Luminance levels in the Color Grading wheels, then adjusting the Exposure, Whites, Blacks, and Contrast sliders after applying a preset. Keep an eye on your histogram to make sure you’re not losing too much detail in the highlights or shadows. Importantly, presets can’t fix bad light. Finding good, interesting light should be the goal for every photographer, as it gives your photo a great starting point to edit from.
Pushing Color
Many presets are designed to create a specific color mood, which means they often push colors in a way that might not work for every photo. Teal and orange presets, for example, shift blues toward teal and warm up the oranges to create a cinematic look. This might look great in urban street photography but could make a nature shot look unnatural.
Some presets go overboard with saturation and vibrance, making colors pop too much. Greens can turn neon, reds can look too intense, and blues might lose their natural depth. This is especially noticeable in landscape photography, where natural tones can be completely altered, highlighting the importance of purpose or genre based presets.
To fix this, check the HSL panel. If a certain color looks off, try adjusting its hue, saturation, or luminance. You can also reduce overall vibrance if the preset has made the image feel too exaggerated. Additionally, on the color grading wheels, you can adjust the saturation or luminance specifically of the shadows, midtones, or highlights.
Artifacts & Noise
Some presets add grain, clarity, and texture to create a film-like aesthetic. While this can work well for certain styles, it can also introduce unwanted noise and artifacts, especially in images taken at higher ISOs or in low light. Artifacts are how we describe portions of the image that start to look unnatural, confusing, glitchy, or broken.
For example, if a preset increases clarity too much, it can create harsh halos around edges, making the image look over-sharpened. Heavy sharpening settings can also amplify noise in darker areas, making them look rough and unnatural.
To avoid this, check the Detail module or Presence panel in the Basic module. If there’s too much sharpening, clarity, or texture, dial it back. If the preset has added grain, decide whether it enhances the mood or just makes the image look noisy. If needed, adjust noise reduction settings to clean up any unwanted graininess. Lightroom Classic has fantastic AI-driven noise reduction tools, if desired.
Sample Preset Workflow in Adobe Lightroom Classic
This will be relatively quick, focusing on highlighting a few key steps summarized below. For the purpose of this tutorial I won’t be going into detail about each module the preset is affecting - see the note at the end of this post about my upcoming Lightroom slider and module series.
Ensure Lens Correction, Transform, and Crop modules are adjusted as desired
Apply “Auto” settings in Basic module, then manually adjust exposure to balance as desired
Apply preset, which will add settings for modules: Tone Curve, Calibration, Color Mixer, Color Grading, and Effects
Add sharpening via Detail module, if desired
Revisit Basic & Color Grading modules to fine tune Exposure, White Balance, and Color
I’ll be using one of my images from Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa, Tokyo for the workflow. Feel free to choose one of your own images and follow along.
Lens Correction, Transform, and Crop
Lens Corrections. Starting with the basics, I always like to get the composition fixes out of the way before moving onto exposure and color. First up is the Lens Corrections module, typically the automatic settings here will do the trick - but I’ll adjust as needed.
Transform. After Lens Corrections, I’ll move on to Transform, which usually just requires one of the automatic geometry settings like Auto or Full. I’ll adjust until I get the desirable result. I always double check that “Constrain Crop” is checked.
Crop. To round out the composition here, I’ll crop the image as desired. While I can always revisit cropping later, I like to start with my composition largely finalized before moving onto exposure and color.
Basic Module
Basic. The quickest way to get started with an edit is using the “Auto” settings. Lightroom will typically do a decent job, but I’ve noticed it tends to bring up Shadows and bring down Blacks to even out the exposure. I’ll typically invert that, as I prefer the look of raised Blacks and richer Shadows. I usually won’t touch the white balance yet unless it’s really off for some reason, I prefer to revisit it at the end since the color grading will have an impact on how much needs to be adjusted to get the look I like.
Applying Presets
Presets. I’ll select a preset from the Omotenashi Preset Pack here, going for the warm version (W), since my aesthetic biases warm and I think it’ll complement this warm summer afternoon at Senso-ji Temple. Now we’re cooking!
Detail Module
Detail. In the detail pane, I’ll add a little bit of sharpening as needed. Fujifilm RAW files typically don’t take well to sharpening, so I’ll keep it at the base Amount of 40, but adjust the Masking of the Sharpening. The Masking slider controls how much of the finer details in the image get sharpened. Holding down the “Option” key on a Mac while sliding it will show you in black & white where the Sharpening is being applied. I like to only Sharpen the finer edges, if even needed at all.
Fine Tune: Exposure, White Balance, Color Grading
Revisit Exposure & White Balance. Now that our preset is applied, I’ll go back and adjust the Exposure and White Balance in the Basic module. I ended dialing up the Temperature to 6300K and the Tint to 25 to further accentuate the warm look. Again, this is all to taste!
Revisit Color Grading. The final step in this short workflow is to adjust the Color Grading wheels, namely the Luminance sliders (below each wheel), the Saturation sliders (which extend out from each wheel when hovering over), and the Hue (which are the colors shown on the outer edge of the wheel. The preset set all of these for us, but they may need small tweaks to get the final look. I’ll typically always move around the Luminance sliders to dial in a punchier look. Finally, if desired, you can change the Blending and Balance sliders. These two sliders are a bit more advanced, but Blending basically decides how much of each grade on the Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights will blend together. More blending ends up being a bit softer, while less blending ends up being punchier or more stylized. I usually just keep it on 100. The Balance slider will shift the weight of the grade between the Shadows and Highlights, where as a 0 value is neutral. Depending on the image, I may want the Shadows color grade more dominant than the Highlights, like I have it here at -10.
Before & After: The Final Look
That’s all there is to it! A quick before and after to see the effect of our preset-driven edit.
Wrapping Up
I hope this tutorial has been helpful! I also understand that Lightroom and photo editing can be complicated when getting started - I was right there with you. To help advance your editing skills, I’m going to launch a free series on the blog where I go through every single Lightroom slider and module, teaching you how to edit RAW images from start to finish. This series will cover one of the most powerful tools in editing: masking. Please be on the lookout for those in the near future!
Have any additional questions about editing with presets? Thought this was helpful, or not so much? Let me know via Instagram DM or Email! My inboxes are always open and I’ll try to respond as quickly as possible.
Thanks for reading! Be well, and see you in the next post.
